Tuesday, 19 March 2013

I TWEET, THEREFORE I AM

[One from the archives ladies and gents. New blog tomorrow]

Tweeting. Twittering.
One twatted. Don’t get me started! This is definitely up there as my least favorite entry into the world of social media and connectivity (as you can see I'm still on a bit of a disturbed streak). What
bored individual came up with this total mind-numbing act of narcissism?
Seriously. Facebook was bad enough, encouraging all of us (and don't worry, I'm
woman enough to admit when I succumb to things) to post what we are doing at
any given moment. And of course some people take this to the extreme just to
ensure that we know they're still breathing, dating, eating, shopping, showering and then some; "Jenny is buttering her
toast with a very dull knife, but man does she love butter." No offense,
Jenny, but I don't really care.

Then there is the
celebrity tweets announcing their moral and political opinions, their tirades at other celebs
(Courtney Love should just surrender all of her electronic devices. Although
her rants while high do have comic value), and of course their break-ups. Cause
that is what I always feel like doing when my relationship has just ended,
tweeting about it, and making sure the whole freaking world knows how it went
down (cause you know how truthful celebrity tweets are). "It's fine, we grew apart, but we're the best of friends and she'll
be in my heart forever." Please, just stop.

I think the real
kicker for me was when half of congress was tweeting during one of President
Obama's speeches. Seriously, we realize the government is drowning at the
moment in a sea of partisan dysfunction, but can you at least pretend to show
some respect for us the taxpayers (ahem, and your employers) your job and leader of the free world? Then again, perhaps
it's just as important to let the world know what Senator Webb thinks of
Senator Dodd's punchy red tie.

I realize that this is
slightly hypocritical as I am in a sense being revealing and narcissistic by
blogging, but I figure, we
have to draw a line somewhere. [And you can be rest assured I will never tell
you about the toast that I am eating]. As I see it, the immediacy and monotony of tweeting
is leading us down a path where every single moment of our lives is deemed
important enough to put out there. Note to mass public: it’s not. I know the
human condition is to fear being mundane and ordinary, but people, it's okay,
we are all stewing in the boring pot together. So don't be afraid to butter
that toast in silence.